The author introduces the Englishman John Blackthorne, a maritime pilot, or navigator, with specialized knowledge about the dangerous straits that make sailing to Japan dangerous. Blackthorne’s ship, the Erasmus, is a Dutch vessel—he has been hired to help them forge a shipping route to Japan as a way of getting around the fact that currently the only European country that trades in Japanese goods is Portugal. The Erasmus goes into a storm and wrecks. 

Blackthorne wakes in a clean room after a woman addresses him in a language he doesn’t understand; there is food, and his clothes have been cleaned, but his knife and pistol are gone. Blackthorne goes out to a veranda and sees a village of two hundred houses, spread against the base of the mountain. The Erasmus is anchored in the harbor.

Everywhere Blackthorne goes, people bow to him. A Portuguese Jesuit in an orange robe, Father Sebastio, accuses Blackthorne of being a pirate, like all Dutchmen. Sebastio is surprised when Blackthorne says he is English.

Omi, a samurai who polices the village, tells Blackthorne that a few of his shipmates are still alive. He allows Blackthorne to roam the village but forbids him from leaving.